


kill a dragon (and admit you were wrong)

by ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes



Series: move forward (there is nothing for you here) [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Could Be Canon, F/F, Gap Filler, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Torture, Introspection, Spirits, Suicidal Thoughts, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 13:44:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19110871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes/pseuds/ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes
Summary: Zuko V. Social Etiquetteor, Zuko meets a nice family and screams internally a lot.





	kill a dragon (and admit you were wrong)

**Author's Note:**

> Kill me lol.

Zuko's scar always aches before it rains.

Maybe it's just some weird phantom pain, maybe it's a helpful spirit, but it's just a fact. Most people on the _Wani_ were aware of it, given that their scars had similar fortune telling abilities.

Zuko's scar aches when it rains, so he can tell there's a storm rolling in.

Part of him is happy for it. Water in the deserts of the Earth Kingdom is a luxury, something Zuko's pounding head can attest to, but the other part of him worries. Worries because his scar only aches in this specific way, like someone is beating on his eye socket with a hammer, when there is a large storm rolling in. And storms mean lightning, and angry spirits.

It is a well known fact that desert spirits get angry when it rains. And given Zuko's record of _stealing the faces of spirits,_ he's not exactly betting on his making it out unscathed.

Perhaps wearing the guise of a rain spirit could help his chances of survival, Zuko thinks. Maybe he's becoming deluded due to heat stroke, but the thought is almost comforting. Like donning the Blue Spirits likeness will grant him it's protection, rather than invoke its wrath.

It certainly can't make him any more of a dead man than he already is. Well, it can, but Zuko's not very picky about whether he lives or not, at this point. Which is a horrible thing to even contemplate, and he would bring shame upon the whole royal family if he ever even entertained the thought for longer than a second, but it's stuck in his head.

He doesn't put on the mask. He can't really decide if it's because it could make things more dangerous, or because it could help protect him.

Uncle would be terribly sad about that, he thinks.

It doesn't matter.

(Yes it does.)

He's probably going to die soon, anyway, if the spirits are angry enough.

So, the travelers are a blessing.

A curse, in other ways.

A small child spots him first, from the back of the wagon. He points to Zuko, yammering away to his mother about something Zuko can't hear. Then, the mother turns around, yells an order, and the wagon halts.

Zuko stops as well, suspicion picking up its skirts and settling itself down in his brain. He narrows his eyes, pulling his ostrich-horse (Who he will only ever call Ursa internally) to a stop as well. After the stop, Zuko had drawn closer to the wagon, and now him and the mother watch each other across a small distance, seeing who will make the first move.

"Would you like a ride?" Calls out the mother after a seconds longer hesitation.

"Cecelia!" Snaps a voice from the front of the wagon, also female.

"Honestly love, you need to calm your paranoia. He barely looks old enough to be a man!" Cecelia argues back, and even from the distance Zuko can see her jutting out her bottom lip. "So, whattaya say, stranger?"

Zuko moves forward as an answer.

He doesn't like accepting help, but he needs it, bad. Zuko's read on the side effects of dehydration, and he would rather be slaughtered by bandits.

So, he swallows his pride.

He never tastes a more bitter thing.

"Yay, new friend!" The kid yells, pumping his fist in the air like Zuko is the most exciting thing since Fireflakes.

"I'm Cecilia, and this is Sora. What's your name, son?" Cecilia has pretty black hair that goes a little past her shoulders, and gemstone green eyes. Sora looks like her, mostly. He gets off Ursa and lifts her inside, then accepts Cecilias outstretched hand.

"Li." His voice is flat, but it normally sounds like that.

"Nice meeting you, Li. That up there is my wife Daniella, but she prefers Danny." The only part of Danny visible is her back, but Zuko can see the odd haircut from where he is: Sheared close to skin on the sides, and fluffy, curly light brown on the top. Then she turns, and Zuko feels a jolt of shock.

Gold eyes. Gold eyes like only Firebenders have.

"Theres a storm coming. I can feel it in my scar." Zuko distantly wonders where her scar is, but he's still a bit distracted by the whole 'Firebender' thing.

Maybe he shouldn't say anything though; Maybe she's hiding just like he is.

"Honey, I told you, the merchants said today was going to be sunny. Your scars always ache." Danny huffs and turns back around.

"She's right." Both women look at him in surprise at the unprompted declaration. "My scar aches too. It always does before storms." Danny nods at him in... Approval? Agreement? How is he supposed to know? "Heading for shelter would be the best idea," He adds, when the pause starts to weigh too heavy.

"I told you..." Danny sing songs at her wife, voice joyously teasing. She has a big, bright grin on her face. Cecilia makes a mock swat at her head, but Danny ducks it, laughing.

Zuko feels lonely.

"So, Li, how did you end up out in the desert all alone?" Cecilia has an accent. It's implacable, and nothing like anything Zuko has ever heard before.

Zuko is a terrible liar- Azula's told him that enough- so he decides to go with something close to the truth. "I was travelling with my uncle when we split up." He stops before asking "Can I have some water?" Cecilia hands him a waterskin. For the first time in his life, he thanks Tui for something.

There is an awkward pause, and Zuko is cursing himself for breaking social norms again when Danny says "Well _that's_ not suspicious at all." Cecilia chides her.

"Why would that be suspicious?" Zuko is confused. Maybe he needs to update his cover story...

"It's just a common tactic among bandits to ask for a ride saying they're meeting up with a family member. Danny's just being an a-" Cecilia looks at Sora- "Butthole."

"Why's Mommy being a butthole again?" Sora asks innocently.

"I'm doing the best I can, brat." Danny jibes, voice fond despite its words.

Zuko wonders how these people can be evil.

They arrive in a small town just as dark storm clouds begin to gather. The wind is starting to pick up, and Zuko is ponders what will happen if there is a dust storm in the middle of the rain one. And then promptly decides he doesn't want to know.

Danny and Cecilia agree (And by that Zuko means that they argue about it for a while until Cecilia holds an incredibly obvious and incredibly embarrassing promise over Danny's head and Danny gives up fighting) to let Zuko share their hotel room in hopes of a lower price all around. Zuko promises to pay his share, and when Cecilia asks where he got the money he tells her not to worry about it.

The clerk asks if the family is traveling together. Cecilia is clearly stifling laughter as Zuko and Danny both turn bright red and attempt to stutter out a refusal.

The room has two beds, which Zuko supposes is good fortune, given that Sora only likes sleeping with his moms. Eventually the family falls asleep, and Zuko lays awake, staring at the ceiling.

He doesn't know what he's doing here. Maybe by traveling with this family he is sinning. Maybe he is just taking advantage of human kindness, dishonoring Agni. Perhaps if he can save them from danger he can turn disgrace into salvation.

You may kill a dragon, he remembers Uncle saying, but never say you did it to help the dragons prey.

At the time Zuko had sneered and said that there were no dragons, and that Uncle and his proverbs were useless.

He still doesn't know what it means, but the guilt is eating him up inside.

Sleep does not come for some time, after that.

Zuko wakes at the crack of dawn, like he always does. But when he gets up, someone else is there- It's Danny, unpacking some supplies in preparation for breakfast.

They look at eachother, golden eyes widening in unison. Finally, Danny sighs, and gets up. She walks up to his bed, sitting on the side of it, looking down at her hands. He gets himself up and pulls his legs into the lotus position, staring at the wall.

"You're Fire Nation, aren't you?" He asks, surprised by the steadiness in his relatively quiet voice.

"You can speak up, they both sleep like rocks." Danny snorts, voice wavering. Then, she sighs again. "Yes. And so are you." It's a statement, not a question, but Zuko nods anyway. Danny continues at the silent prompting. "I used to fight in the army. I was a part of General Iroh's siege of Ba Sing Se for about two months, when I was twenty one, before I got placed on the front lines for insubordination." Once he gets over the slight shock of sitting next to someone who served under Uncle, Zuko huffs something that might have been laughter at the thought of Danny getting ousted for being insubordinate. He's known her for less than 24 hours and already he doesn't have a hard time believing it.

"Anyway," She continues. "I fought in the shit for a while, until one day I got separated from my squad." Now, her bitter edged smile turns into a frown. "I got stabbed by an Earth Kingdom vagabond and left for dead in the desert when Cecilia found me." The smile is back, softer this time. "She was something like seven months pregnant, but she still loaded me, a Fire Nation soldier, up onto her ostrich-horse and carried me back to her village.

"When I first woke up, I tried to attack her, but she just grabbed my hand and said 'Rest now, you're hurt.' Bravest thing I had ever seen in my life. She took care of me for weeks until I was almost healed. We talked, and I started to fall hard. And then _they_ came." It's clear she means the Fire Nation. Even if it wasn't obvious, Zuko doesn't think he'd have the wherewithal to ask. He's become absolutely entranced.

"My squadron found me. They were threatening to kill  'Cel. She was gonna have her baby soon. I had no choice. I attacked them all, told them to just report me as dead, practically begged them." Her face screws up in disgust. He's only just noticed how small she is. "They didn't. She ran, but I got captured, and held at a camp for prisoners of war."

Danny's hands start shaking. Zuko can see a bit of a faded white burn mark peeking out from beneath her neckline. He feels a little sick.

"The things they did there..." He doesn't want her to elaborate. "Let's just say that by the time  'Cel broke me out, I was barely still holding on. We left. Ran as far as we could. It's been five years, and we're still running, really."  She gets up and walks back to her supply bag.

Zuko doesn't know how his people could do this to one of their own. Something is pounding through him, tearing up his insides and making his vision blur. He feels so... Unprepared. Like he's been scratched up inside and the pillars that are supposed to hold him up are collapsing.

Usually, feelings like this are accompanied by anger. Spirit's, he _wishes_ this was anger. Wishes, desperately, that all of the conflict inside him could just be pinned down to one feeling. That all of this could just wash away, be swept aside like the Avatar, sweeping aside Fire Nation ships.

But it isn't. None of this makes him angry, and that's so much _worse_.

"I have hope for my country though. That one day they'll see the light. Maybe the Avatar can help with that, maybe he can't." Danny shrugs her shoulders, bending down to continue the task she had started before Zuko awoke. "Maybe he'll die, and we'll have to do all the hard work ourselves." A tinge of dark humor colors her voice. "It doesn't matter. All I know is, we gotta have hope. Otherwise, we've got nothing."

She's barely gotten out a "Isn't that right, Li?" before she realizes that Zuko is gone, with only a small bag of coins sitting in his place.

She lets out a long breath, holds the bridge of her nose like Zuko does, and goes back to her task.

Zuko watches from the roof, bag slung over shoulder, before donning the Blue Spirit mask and getting his Ostrich-horse from the stables. As he ~~runs~~ leaves, Zuko thinks about her words.

Hope is such a funny thing, one that Zuko is starting to think he doesn't understand.

His teachers used to say that the future was fire, and Uncle used to say that the future was hope. So why, when Zuko feels hope trickle down from his heart and settle in his stomach, does it never _burn_?

**Author's Note:**

> The OC's are from a different, original work of mine. Ironically, Danny is actually a supervillain trying to reform in that story, so her parrells to Zuko run on a meta level as well.


End file.
